Trans-Pacific In a Leaky

Old Junk

From Our Own Correspondent

Samarai, Dec. 20.

AN extraordinary story of Pacific voyaging was told here recently, in a lecture for the benefit of the Red Cross, by Dr. Petersen, who has arrived in these islands, with his wife, in the Chinese junk, “Hummel Hummel”.

Dr. and Mrs. Petersen were touring, in China, when the Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937. They were eye-wit nesses of the murder of panic-stricken Chinese, in Japanese air raids on Nan king. They, themselves, were arrested by Japanese officials for trespassing in closed parts of the city, and were released through the intervention of the American Embassy.

Having purchased the junk, and being assured by their friends that there were many better ways of committing suicide, and accompanied by two White Rus sians, they gaily set off. down the Hwang Ho River, for Shanghai, en route to Japan. After a lot of wrestling with unfamiliar charts, and a false start, they were eventually found by some Japanese fishermen, and towed into the harbour of Nagasaki—which, to their dismay, was a closed port. In Yokohama, they were acclaimed as heroes. They took in food and water and, after repair ing the ship, headed off across the Pacific.

Eighty-five days of weary navigating of their tiny craft, battling with heavy seas and suffering extreme cold while passing the Aleutian Islands, and they arrived finally in Los Angeles, where

they set down their two passengers.

Ironically, their next passenger was a man who used to be in the submarine service!

They met very bad weather along the Mexico Coast, and they were 90 days going 600 miles. They had to tack all the way from Panama to Ecuador. The junk was leaking very badly, and the doctor and his wife were bailing 200 gallons of water daily—no mean feat for a tiny person like Mrs. Petersen (an American-educated Japanese lady).

In a Peruvian port, the craft was extensively repaired; and they decided, then, that the easiest way to get to New York was to go around the world, and thus dodge the contrary currents on the Peruvian coast. So they set sail for the Marquesas Islands.

The weather now was very favourable, and the trip was without incident to Pago Pago. From Apia, they planned to sail across to Port Moresby.

After leaving Apia, they ran into a heavy south-east gale, and nearly sank.

The sea came into the forward hold, the fore deck was awash, and the boat was out of control. They threw out two sea-anchors, and travelled with the bow down for six days.

They lost food, clothing and practic ally all their personal belonging in that stretch. As their charts had ended at Pago Pago, they travelled blind. They somehow got through Snake Passage, in Eastern Papua, but they then were blown onto the reef at Sudest Island, where they were helped off by Mr. Harry Pierce.

The junk is now being repaired on the slip at Kwato, near Samarai. The doctor told many amusing anecdotes, indicating that a great sense of humour possessed by him and his wife helped

them through a voyage that would strike terror into the hearts of most. I am no explorer, and, after one look at that junk, I have decided my voyaging will be done under less venturesome circum stances. They did plan to carry on westwards to New York, but the Japan ese war may alter their plans.